Adjustable bearing



G. FUEGEL AND H. SCHMID.

ADJUSTABLE BEARING. APPLICATION FILED DC.27, 1918.

1,42 17 PatentedAug.15, 1922. -23

- fNl,NTO/?6 d. HERMAN 8011mm. 5 y 60 TTLOB FuscsL.

GOTTLVOB FUEGEL AND HERMAN SGHMID, or EEooKL-YN, NEW YORK, AssIeNoEs, BY

'MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO APOLLO MAGNETO CORJPORA'IION, or BROOKLYN, NEW,

YORK, A CORPORATIONOF DELAWARE.

ADJUSTABLE BEARING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 15, 1922.

Application filed December 27, 1918. Serial No. 268,554.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GoTrLon FUEGEL and HERMAN SGHMID, who are subjects of the German Emperor, but who have severally renounced all allegiance to said potentate and declare our intentions of becoming citizens of the'United States, residing in Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Bearings, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in adjustable bearings; particularly bearings for shafts that require to have the positions of their axes changed, in order to permit their relative speeds of rotation to be in creased or diminished. I

Our invention is especially adapted f0 use on magnetos that supply electric current to the igniters or spark plugs of internal combustion engines; and one of our objects is to provide a bearing for the shaft of the distributer mechanism of an ignition magneto to enable said shaft to be moved towards or from the axis of the armature of the magneto, and thus render the distributer shaft capable of. turning at a relatively greater or smaller number of revolutions per minute. Hence the magneto can be utilized, without alteration of any of its parts, except the distributer mechanism, upon engines having a larger or smaller number of cylinders.

A further object of our invention is to provide a bearing which will not only allow the location of the shaft it carries to be changed when the speed of the shaft is to be changed, but which also will facilitate the movement of the axis of the shaft into correct position for efficient operation at any speed that may be selected.

Other objects and advantages ofour invention will be set out in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings; and the'novel features of our invention will be precisely defined in the appended claims. The disclosure, however, is illustrative only, and other embodiments may be resorted to, within the scope and spirit of our invention, as the same is expressed in the claims, and withinthe general meanings of the terms employed in the phrasing of the same.

neto showing how our adjustable bearing is mounted thereon; r

Figure 2'is a section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1. i

Figures 3, 4 and 5 are respectively a front elevation, a side elevation and a rear elevation of a bushing that is part of ourinvention;and v Figures 6, 7 and 8 are respectively a front elevation, a side elevation and arear eleva tion of an eccentric sleeve to befemployed in connection with said bushing. j.

The same numerals of reference. identify the same parts throughout. i

In Figure 1 we show a portion of a magneto for the electric ignition system of. an.

internal combustion engine. This magneto comprises among other things a rotatable armature 1 which, carries a gear 2 meshing with a gear. 3; and all of the parts ofthe magneto, including the casing 4 for the gear frame work or housing of the magneto which is indicated at 5. The casing 4 will be held in place by securing the same .to a sup- 3, will be suitably mounted by means of the port 6 which is on the housing 5 and in j which our adjustable bearing is disposed. In practice the armature 1 will be provided with a low tension or primary winding and a high tension or secondary winding; .and. will include a timer for breaking thecircuit of the primary winding and a distributer for supplying the high tension or sec ondary current to the spark plug or igniters of the engine, cylinders. either the timer or the distributer mechanism here, as the general construction and mode, of operation of the same are well known; and the distributer mechanism al- VVedo not show I cuit to each spark plug in succession as the gear 3 turns. Fora four cylinder engine the gear 3 must be twice as large as the gear 2' and therefore rotates at one half the speed of the latter; while for six cylinders, the

.gear 3 must be three times the size of. the gear 2 and therefore rotates at one third the speed thereof. Hence if themagneto is to be changed so as to adapt it for a six cylinder engine instead ofafour cylinder engine,

the distance between the axis of rotation of the gear 3' and the axis of the armature 1 must be altered. If for example the gear 3 is of such size that it rotates at one half the speed of the gear 2 and we wish to have the gear rotate at one third of the speed of the armature 1, we preferably attain our object by replacing the gear 2 with a slightly smaller gear and the gear 3 with a slightly larger one. Such a change involves the replacing of the casing 1 with a slightly larger casing and the moving of the axis of rotation of the gear 3 farther away from the axis of the armature 1. If, on the other hand, the gear 8 is of such dimensions that it rotates at one third the speed of the gear 2 and we desire to have it rotate only one half the speed of the armature we proceed accordingly by mounting on the armature 1 a little larger gear 2 and choosing a little smaller gear 3 and moving the axis of the gear 3 towards the axis of the armature 1 to the required extent. The casing A is of course held to the support 6 by means of fastening devices which can be easily removed to enable a suitable gear casing to be easily put on or taken off, and our adjustable bearing, mounted in the support 6, permits the location of the axis of the gear 8 at the neces sary distance from the axis of the armature 1 in a manner now to be described.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the support 6 has an aperture 7 therethrough. This aperture 7 is elongated vertically and it re ceives a bushing 8 which has an eccentric opening 9. This bushing is inserted into the aperture 7 from the rear; that is, from the face of the support 6 opposite to that which abuts against the casing 1; and the opening 9 receives an eccentric sleeve 10 which has an eccentric bore 11 for the shaft or journal 12 of the gear 8. Owing to the shape of the aperture 7 and the configuration of the bushing 8, the axis of the shaft 12 can be located closer to or farther from the axis of the armature 1, according to the position of the bushing8 in the support 6. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the axis of the gear 3 is relatively close to the axis of the armature, but if the bushing were reversed or inverted in the aperture 7, the axis of the gear 3 would be moved farther away from the armature axis. As indicated in Figure 1, the bushing 8 terminates short of the front face of the support 6; while the sleeves 10 extends all the way through this bushing and beyond the front end of the aperture 7, and even goes through the central opening of the casing 4 for the shaft 12 and may abut against the rear face of the gear 3. In either position of the bushing 8, the sleeve 10 can be turned in the opening 9, to move the gear 3 into the most efficient operative position in order to make the teeth of the gear 3 and the gear 2 go into proper mesh with one another.

As Figure 2 shows, the aperture 7 is rounded at the top and bottom and fiat at the sides. Therefore it is symmetrical as regards both its longitudinal or vertical axis, and its transverse or horizontal axis. The body of the bushing 8 has the same shape and therefore may be described as symmetrical in the same respects, and as having rounded ends or portions 13 and flat sides 14. On one face it has a flange 15, which, when the bushing is in the aperture 7, will fit against the rear face of the opening 6. Of

course the opening 9 is circular.

The sleeve 10 is circular on its outer face and has polygonal flange 16 at its rear end to enable the same to be turned in the opening 9. At its opposite end it is countersunk or recessed to provide a shoulder 17 around the edge of the bore 11 to receive a washer 18, which is held on the shaft 12 between the rear face of the gear 3 and a shoulder on the shaft; and the sleeve 10 will preferably fit against this washer so that end play or axial movement of the gear 3 is prevented.

The bushing 8 is provided in one of its rounded portions 18 with a groove 19 and likewise with a recess 20 in the opposite rounded portion. When the bushing is in the aperture 7, this groove and this recess will be engaged by fastening means, such as bolts 21 which pass through passages extending from side to side of the support 6. Hence the displacement of the bushing from the support is prevented. The lower recess 20 goes through the body of the bushing and communicates with the opening 9; and the sleeve 10 has a peripherial recess or groove 22 which is engaged by one of the bolts 21; such bolt projecting laterally through the recess 20 into the groove 22, and axial movement of the sleeve 10 is likewise prevented. To reverse or invert the bushing the bolts 21 are removed, and replaced when the re versal or inversion is effected.

The top of the casing 4: will have an oil opening 23; from which leads a duct 24: which will register with a space 25 in the support 6 leading to the space in front of the bushing 8. In the lower end of the aperture 7, ust in front of the bushing 8, we provide an oil groove or channel 26 and in this groove we place a body of absorbent material 27. The oil which passes down into the space in front of the bushing 8 will saturate the body 27 and any excess will collect in the groove 26. The body 27 will make contact with the outside of the sleeve 10, and we preferably provide in the plane of contact and at equal intervals apart three holes 28 which lead through from the outside of the bushing 10 to the bore 11. These holes may be filled with fibrous material to form wicks, and the oil from the body 27 will soak through these wicks and spread over the inside of the sleeve 10 and the outside of the shaft 12, thus lubricating the gear thoroughly.

The shaft 12 is held in the sleeve 10 by virtue of a pin 29 which passes through openings in the end of the shaft and in a ring 30, which encircles the end of the shaft adjacent the fiange 16. This ring will have the openings drilled entirely through it atthe ends of a diameter and it will also have a circumferential groove which crosses the outer ends of these openings to receive a locking ring 31. This ring 31 will retain the pin 29 in place but it will be cut crosswise at one point and can easily be pried out by a tool to allow the ring 30 and the pin 29 to be taken off, and the'removal andthe replacement of the gear 3 efiected; as will be understood.

By the above construction we are enabled to use the same magneto for either four or six cylinder engines merely by changing the gears 2 and 3, with the shaft 12, together with the distributer plate which carriesthe high tension binding posts. At the same time the bearing, comprising means, such as the bushing 8 to change the position of the shaft, and means, such as the sleeve 10, for the final adjustment, is very simple; comprising but few members; and both replacement of the gears and the moving of the same into the best operative position can be very quickly accomplished.

The body 27 may be a ring of cloth or. cord. When the axis of the shaft 12 is as far as it can be moved from the gear 2, this ring can be folded or doubled along a diameter and caused to assume a semi-circular shape if there is no room for it above the sleeve 10 in front of the bushing 8. In this shape it can be replaced in the channel 26. The body 27 in any case will always make contact with one of the wicks in the holes 28 and effective lubrication of the shaft 12 will be assured.

In this application We make no claim to the features whereby lubrication is effected, as that part of the invention is recited in the claims of our co-pending application No. 320912 for a patent on lubricating devices, filed Aug. 80th, 1919.

Having described our invention, what We believe to be new. and desire .to secure and protect by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. As an article of manufacture, a bushing having straight sides and rounded ends and an eccentric opening therethrough, one of said ends having a grooveto be engaged by a fastening element and the other end having a recess to be engaged by a similar element, said recess communicating with said opening, and an external flange on the bushhavlng an eccentric openlng, said bushing being capable of reversal to enable the position of the opening therein to be changed with respect to'the support, and a sleeve having an eccentric bore in said bushing, the support having a passage extending transversely of said aperture to receive a fastening element, the bushing being recessed to engage said element, the support also having another transverse passage to receive a second fastening element, the bushing being provided with a recess at its opposite end to receive the second element, said recess extending through to the inside of the bushing, to engage said sleeve and maintain the latter in adjusted position in th bushing.

5. As an article of manufacture, a bushing having straight sides and rounded ends with an eccentric opening for a shaft there- As an article of manufacture, a sleeve through to enable the position of the shaft to be changed by the reversal ofthe bushing.

6. As an article of manufacture, a bush-- 1 ing having straight sides and rounded ends and an eccentric opening therethrough, one of said ends having a groove to be engaged by a fastening element. 7,

7. As an article of manufacture, a bushing having straight sides and rounded ends and an ecpentric opening therethrough, one of said ends having a recess to be engaged by a fastening element, said recess communicating with said opening.

8. As an article of manufacture, a bushing having straight sides and rounded ends and an eccentric opening therethrough, one

of said ends having a groove to be engaged by a fastening element and'the other end having a recess to be engaged by .a similar element, said recess communicating with] said opening.

In testimony whereof, we have signed our names to this specification this 1st day of November 1918. I

GOTTLOB FUEGEL. HERMAN SCHMID, 

